i7 cpu and Optiplex 980 or 990

To expand my question further, what is the cpu socket type on the Optiplex 980 and 990?  And will the bios with either handle any i7 cpu, and/or can it be updated to handle any of them?

There isn't a motherboard on planet earth that can take "ANY" i7 because there are several generations of chips and they all use different sockets such as 1366, 1156, 1155, 1150,  2011 etc.  So the answer is No and No and Not Ever because each generation of Core I7 uses different chipset and Socket.

980 being INTEL Q57 Express Chipset  Core I7 870 LGA 1156

http://ark.intel.com/products/41315/Intel-Core-i7-870-Processor-8M-Cache-2_93-GHz

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/optix/en/optiplex-980-tech-guide.pdf

990 being

INTEL Core I7 2600  INTEL Q67 Express Chipset LGA 1155

http://ark.intel.com/products/52213/Intel-Core-i7-2600-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-3_80-GHz

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/optix/en/optiplex-990-tech-guide.pdf

Thanks for a very useful answer..  Since I'm wanting to upgrade from a Pentium 4 computer, II'm a bit out of touch, and didn't know there were so many versions of the i7 cpu.  Your information and links show out that the Optiplex 980 and the Optiplex 990 use different cpu sockets, so I need to find lists of all the i7 cpu versions that will work with either of these two systems.

Or, were the two examples you also linked to, the i7-870 for the Optiplex 980, and the i7-2600 for the 990...were they the latest i7 versions that would work with the respective systems?

John

The specific models are from the technical guides.  There were not hundreds of models in the 800 Series nor in the 2600 series.   The processors listed represent the top end of what is spec'd in the guide.

They are not interchangeable or compatible between the 980 and the 990. The Core I7 series is in 6th generation now.

This means that the 5th and 6th gen chips out now are NOT compatible with either the 980 or 990.  The socket and the core

Bloomfield        45nm  Socket 1366
Lynnfield           45nm  Socket 1156
Sandy Bridge  32nm  Socket 1155
Ivy Bridge         32mm Socket 1155
Devils Canyon 22nm  Socket 1150
Ivy Bridge- E    22nm  Socket 2011
Haswell - E       22nm  Socket 2011
Skylake             14nm  Socket 1151